His eyes are red-rimmed from tears, and at moments there is a catch in his voice that speaks as eloquently as any words of the loss he and our nation have suffered.

The King has made no effort to conceal his grief these past few days, and whether consciously or not, by doing so he has won over millions who until last week found it somehow hard to conceive that they would know a time without the Queen.

It still feels a little strange and unfamiliar to refer to the King instead of the Queen, and that will persist for a while yet, at least until next Monday’s funeral.

But the reception of Charles III by the crowds outside Buckingham Palace, and his willingness to show both the rawness of his emotions and the gravity with which he regards the burden he now bears mean that his reign begins on a massive wave of public goodwill.

The Royal Family at the Platinum jubilee celebrations earlier this year. (PIC: Roland Hoskins - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

That is a considerable relief. The long-dreaded day that came with the announcement of the Queen’s death last week had been for years freighted with concern that with her gone, the monarchy she had devoted her life to preserving would start to lose the nation’s support.

At the heart of those worries was Charles’s record of outspokenness, and his campaigning on issues that he believes in passionately.

It is a measure of the King’s self-awareness that in his first address to the nation, he tackled his record of activism head-on, acknowledging that it was inappropriate now he is monarch.

Yet there are still questions over how the King’s relationship with the nation – and Commonwealth – will develop once the period of mourning for the Queen is over.

An era of monarchy, and a particular public affection for it, died with her. The King cannot replicate it and must forge a new bond with the people.

It will be different in so many ways. Whereas the Queen remained something of an enigma, despite being in the public eye for eight decades, we know every twist and turn of the King’s life in almost painful detail, thanks to confessional interviews and a biography by broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby that he co-operated with.

We know about the sometimes strained relationship with his parents, especially his father, and the turmoil of his marriage to Diana.

So too, we know he bears a substantial share of the responsibility for that because of his long-term relationship with Camilla. There is also the painfully public rift with Harry, and recent unease about the source of some donations to his charities.

For all the minute scrutiny of the Queen and her family for decades, she still managed to maintain a touch of the mystery that had been a central feature of the monarchy in an earlier, more deferential age.

The King cannot hope to emulate that, because so much of his personal life has been aired in public, with or without his acquiescence, and his views on everything from organic farming to architecture are familiar.

Set against that, though, is a public perception that in all he has done in his lifelong apprenticeship, the King has quite obviously tried to be a force for good and for unity – ever more necessary in an often politically polarised nation.

He has steadily grown into a likeable figure. As a young man, he sometimes came across as awkward and ill-at-ease, and then in middle age as eccentric.

But in the past couple of decades, he has appeared to find peace – surely thanks to Camilla.

Time has caught up with his views. For years, he was an isolated voice in preaching about environmental catastrophe, but now public opinion overwhelmingly agrees and to a generation of young people the new King is a forceful advocate of their desire for action on the climate.

Time has also brought him a family that is a bridge to the public. In William and Kate, the King not only has steadfast support, but an immensely popular couple with an effortless and informal rapport with those they meet.

And the pictures of him with his grandson, Louis, on his knee during the Platinum Jubilee celebrations will have struck a chord with families across the land. For all the trappings of royalty, like his mother, he will come to be regarded as one of their own.

The slimmed-down Royal Family the King has long advocated looks in good shape. It would look even better if some way can be found to heal the rift with Harry and Meghan.

There are grounds for optimism that his will be a reign characterised by a warm mutual bond of affection and respect between monarchy and people.

How King Charles III can follow in the footsteps of his mother Queen Elizabeth II - Andrew Vine